Although significant work has been done on the place of the literature ofClassical and Late Antiquity in the Middle Ages, much remains to be discussed onthe presentation of women and gender (especially on figures other than Dido orthose in the works of Boccaccio and Chaucer). As the tales of Troy, Thebes,Aeneas, Alexander, etc., are translated into various vernaculars for medievalaudiences (or otherwise adapted into medieval Latin), so too are thecharacteristics, motives, actions, garments, histories, roles, and/or words offemale characters translated, adapted, expanded, or even invented by medievalauthors.

Whether these ‘translations’ are made in order for the characters toresonate with the contemporary audiences or for other authorial motivations, Iam especially interested in soliciting essays for this session that compare thecharacterizations of women in medieval retellings of the tales of Antiquity withtheir Classical counterparts and that consider the significance thesedifferences may have on medieval articulations of gender.